Dallas Empire start CDL Championship defense with dominant win over Minnesota RØKKR

The Minnesota RØKKR were looking to start the 2021 Call of Duty League Playoffs the same way they ended the Stage Five Major—with an improbable reverse sweep. This time, though, the door slammed quickly on their comeback hopes with the Dallas Empire completing the sweep today and advancing in the CDL Playoffs.

Dallas showed why they’re one of the top teams in the world, with MVP candidate Shotzzy putting on a clinic. He was unbelievable in the series’ three games, posting a 52-31 stat line, good for a 1.68 K/D. ILLeY and Crimsix showed up with big-time performances as well, producing 1.34 and 1.24 K/Ds, respectively. For Shotzzy, he didn’t let the moment of the season’s biggest tournament get to him.

“I just look at it like another tournament,” Shotzzy said of his mindset heading into CoD Champs. “I’m just looking at it like another series, another scrim.”

Dallas bounced back after a disappointing exit with their loss to OpTic Chicago at the Stage Five Major earlier this month. After this performance, they’re looking like a top candidate to take the CDL Championship for the second consecutive year. They dominated Minnesota on every map, especially the Raid Search and Destroy. Dallas closed out the map with a 6-1 round count—and it wasn’t particularly close in the slaying numbers, either. If the Empire are outslaying their opponents by 48 kills over a three-game series, then they just might repeat as champions. 

Minnesota didn’t look like the same team that rattled off five straight maps to complete their miraculous comeback at the Stage Five Major. They didn’t show the same slaying or playmaking ability in this series. RØKKR will need to up their performance if they want to avoid getting knocked out of the tournament with a 0-2 record. 

Attach and Standy weren’t their usual excellent selves in this series but still posted 0.89 and 0.82 K/Ds, respectively. It was the AR duo of MajorManiak and Priestahh who struggled mightily in this matchup, with both players posting 0.69 K/Ds. Their lack of slaying let Dallas’ ARs keep control of the map in every game of this series. 

Dallas move on in the winner bracket of CoD Champs 2021 and will face the Toronto Ultra on Friday, Aug. 20 at 2pm CT. Minnesota, on the other hand, drop down to the losers bracket and will take on the Los Angeles Thieves in an elimination game later today at 5pm CT.